I was about to trek into the desert to try to find what Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, had experienced over one hundred and fifty years ago on his foray through the Holy Land.  Clemens had signed up because he was desperate for a future he couldn't imagine.  He had arrived at this juncture exhausted from fighting for a sense of self-worth and fearing that whatever he had managed to accomplish would vanish unnoticed.  As contrarian as it might appear, he was convinced that traveling through Europe and then galloping through Palestine was his best opportunity to secure a lucrative future.  As for me, I was longing for a feeling of intensity, a strengthened connection, a heightening of awareness, a clearer pathway.  I figured I wasn't the first person to seek enlightenment in the Judean Desert and neither was Clemens.  We would be, together, Innocents Abroad.

Laura Skandera Trombley is the forthcoming president of Southwestern University.  She is president emerita of Pitzer College, where she served for 13 years, and the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.  Previously, she served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Dr. Trombley is the author of five books and a number of articles.  She is the recipient of many awards for her scholarship, including being recognized by the Mark Twain Journal as a Legacy Scholar in spring 2019 for her efforts in rehabilitating the intellectual reputations of women who surrounded Mark Twain.  In 2017, she won the Louis J. Budd Award for her contributions to Mark Twain Studies.  Dr. Trombley graduated summa cum laude with a Master of Arts in English from Pepperdine University.  She received her doctorate in English from the University of Southern California.